Polyphemus was the original cyclops from the Odyssey of Homer. He appears in God of War: Ascension'smultiplayer mode as the boss of the desert map. He does not appear in the singleplayer campaign. Polyphemus is the gigantic one-eyed Titan son of Poseidon and Sea Nymph, Thoosa.

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In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus lands on the Island of the Cyclopes during his journey home from the Trojan War. He leaves his eleven other ships behind at an island and takes one ship and crew to see who lives at the other islands. They reach and land on an island with a huge cave filled with sheep and goats, where they leave the boat ashore, and brought along Homer's twelve best men to find who lived in the cave.

After some time, they discover the large cave is home to the great cyclops, Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. After entering the cave, the cyclops imprisons Odysseus and his men and kills six of them.

At that point, Odysseus offers Polyphemus the strong and undiluted wine given to him by Maron. The wine makes Polyphemus drunk and unwary. Odysseus then introduces himself to the cyclops asking if they could be friends. When asked what his name was, Odysseus said his name was Nobody. Remembering the name, Polyphemus passed out in a drunken state.

Odysseus, with the help of his men, lifts a flaming stake, charges forward and drives it into Polyphemus' eye, blinding him. The other cyclopes hear his cries and ask what happened. "Nobody hurt me!" was Polyphemus' response. So, the other giants left him alone, believing his drunk state was the cause for a false alarm.

In the morning, Odysseus and his men tie themselves to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the blind cyclope lets the giant sheep out to graze, he feels their backs to ensure the men are not riding out, but because of Odysseus' plan, he does not feel the men underneath. Odysseus leaves last, riding beneath the belly of the biggest ram. Polyphemus does not realize that the men are no longer in his cave until the sheep and the men are safely out. After Odysseus was on his ship and states to Polyphemus that he has bested him, Polyphemus threw a rock towards Odysseus' ship and missed. Polyphemus then prayed to Poseidon to make Odysseus pay for blinding him.

Polyphemus is enchained in the Desert, but can attack players who get close to him by making them fly away by hitting the ground or smashing them with his huge hands.

At a point of the match, the Spear of Olympus, a weapon with divine powers, falls from the skies. If a warrior can pull the Spear from the ground, he can throw it once in Polyphemus' eye (like the normal spears from the game, this one can be thrown in energy form, but keep itself in the warrior's hand). The hit stuns the cyclops, making his head fall unconscious on the ground. The player that had acquired the Spear must reach Polyphemus' head and grapple it to kill the Titan. If the player dies on the way, his team looses the Spear and must wait for it to fall to the earth once again after some time.

After grappling Polyphemus' stunned head, the warrior will jump to his jaw and stab it, cutting it in half. With a great pain, Polyphemus dies.

Hint: The Spear of Olympus has infinite ammunition and can be kept and used by the warrior who acquired it until the end of the match (or until he dies). If a warrior with the Spear tries to execute Polyphemus when his team has reached the score of 7000 favours (or more), a special execution will be performed: the player will jump and stab Polyphemus' jaw normally, dividing it, but when he jumps back to the ground, the rest of his team will grapple the cyclops' eyes with their chains, pulling and exposing it, and the warrior with the Spear will jump and stab his eye with the weapon, making it disintegrate in blood. Notice that as soon as the execution begins, all of the players in the match will only be able to watch the event and the match will be automatically won by the executors as soon as the execution ends.

In the Trial of the Gods multiplayer mode, Polyphemus is featured as a boss as well. He will only be present in the map when the player(s) reach the final round. After the last enemies are killed, the Spear of Olympus will fall from the sky, and a warrior must take it, throw it at Polyphemus' eye to stun him, run to the head and grapple it to execute it, just as in the Favour of the Gods mode. By killing Polyphemus, the player(s) win the match.

When asked how Izzy Medrano, the character's concept artist, felt about Polyphemus being a featured "boss" in multiplayer instead of a traditional single-player boss, Izzy stated:

"I am really content with Polyphemus' role in multiplayer. He's the first GoW multiplayer boss ever created, and in many ways has to break a lot of new ground. Not the least of which is heavily based on the technical side. This is a full blown GoW Titan boss that players are accustomed to seeing in single-player, but now featured in an eight-player multiplayer mayhem. That’s incredible! He may not be what I’ve become accustomed to, but he’s definitely a monster all his own, like a boss."